TUCSON, Ariz. — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords led a crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, her words ringing out across a cold Tucson night in a rare public appearance Sunday evening at a candlelight vigil one year after surviving a deadly shooting.
Ethan Callif, a driver for UPS, was traveling his normal delivery route in Liberty Township around 10:45 a.m. Thursday when he noticed a Honda Accord half submerged in a retention pond on the northwest corner of Sawmill Road and Presidential Parkway. He could see the driver, a 28-year-old Worthington woman, struggling to escape. He quickly pulled his truck to the side of the road and dove into the water, boots and all. Califf, 33, of Hilliard, pulled the woman out through the passenger window. She later told medics she was afraid and couldn’t swim. Her car ended up submerged in the pond, estimated to be between 10 and 20 feet deep, after a collision at the nearby intersection with a Chevy Malibu.
Perhaps the longest serving firefighter in the community, a Sunbury resident put his fire boots away ending a 50-year career with Tri-Township Fire Department. Senior Capt. Merlin “Boots” Sheets has seen it all through his 50 years of fighting fires. Now, 76, when Sheets first signed on, firefighters were notified by a fire phone ringing at the home. The first out on a fire would sound the tuning fork on the steering wheel, which sent fire tones to the sheriff’s office.